Hem-Fir vs Douglas Fir for Benchtop?

[Jim Foster]

I think picking the best material for a Roubo also depends on geographic region and what's available, and what's convenient. I used DF from a local contractors yard and it was a pain and had poor selection, most yards had to special order it, which meant I would have to take what I get. Hem-Fir at HD was in plentiful supply and I could cherry pick boards. The Hem Fir was also much easier to work with and hand plane. So again, I think the advice given needs to be tempered by what makes sense for a given region.

If I was going to plan a bench today, I'd watch the Craigslist and look for some interesting old wooden joists for a months and see if I could find old big joists that were good enough to use.

[Wilbur Pan]

Thanks Wilbur. I wasn't intending to criticize your counting. My concern is that 21-38 rings per inch may set the bar unreachably high for those of us trying to source "big wood" from a Borg. I would love to know that it's unnecessarily high too.

My counting the rings was mainly for gloat purposes. 21-38 rings per inch is unnecessarily high.

Seriously, the more important thing is to get pieces that are as close to quartersawn as possible. If the choice was between more quartersawn grain and higher rings per inch, go with quartersawn.

[Aaron Rappaport]

Could it be that your count was really 21-38 rings per 4x4 rather than per inch? That's approximately what I got counting off your picture.

[Peter Hawser]

To be fair, the advice was not "Grab any 4x4 that you can find."
At the beginning of this thread, Peter referenced my workbench build thread and said, "My Borg's have 4x4's they list as Douglas Fir, but are such low quality and I am too impatient to collect one or two good boards at a time over the coming months."

At the beginning of my workbench thread, I said this about collecting wood for my workbench, which I'm fairly sure prompted Peter's comment about being impatient:

"I've been collecting kiln dried Douglas fir 4x4s from the borg for this project. I'd go there every few weeks from work, pick through their pile and leave with three that were clear, and knot free. I picked the best looking ones for the top. When I'm done gluing this up, I expect to have a benchtop that's essentially clear quartersawn Douglas fir with pretty tight grain (21-38 rings per inch, if I counted correctly)."

So the advice about using 4x4s includes basic things like paying attention to grain direction and the quality of the wood. To be sure, any old 4x4 will not be ideal for a workbench top. But that's not the same as dismissing all 4x4 material out of hand.

Gees, I had no idea such controversy emerged from all this! I certainly understood Wilbur and that he took great care in selecting 4x4's for his bench. Come on guys, did you expect me or someone to go and by some pressure treated fence posts for a bench top then report on disaster here on SMC? I know some of us are new to all this and I know I can ask some dumb questions, but I'm not THAT dumb!

[Wilbur Pan]

Could it be that your count was really 21-38 rings per 4x4 rather than per inch? That's approximately what I got counting off your picture.

Good eye. It was 21-38 rings per 4x4, not per inch. I must have gotten excited.

Nonetheless, it was really great working with this stuff. And it makes for a great bench top, both in performance and in looks.

But for me, the bottom line is if you are looking for appropriate wood for a workbench top, go for cheap and easy to work with. And pay attention to grain direction, which plays into the easy to work with criteria. If Douglas fir 4x4's at the borg fit these criteria, go for it. If it's easier for you to find SYP 2x material, use that. If you have a line on cheap straight grained 12/4 poplar, use that.

If a load of purple heart falls off a truck in your neighborhood and is there for the taking, take a pass. Purpleheart is too hard to work with.

[Aaron Rappaport]

Gees, I had no idea such controversy emerged from all this! I certainly understood Wilbur and that he took great care in selecting 4x4's for his bench. Come on guys, did you expect me or someone to go and by some pressure treated fence posts for a bench top then report on disaster here on SMC? I know some of us are new to all this and I know I can ask some dumb questions, but I'm not THAT dumb!

Well, controversial tone or no, I'm learning a lot in this discussion about the problems with the portion of my bench wood that's rift- instead of quarter-sawn. I am still interested if anyone knows if I can get away with laminating my rift-sawn pieces together as long as their ring-orientation is the same. Then when they dry into rhombuses (rhombi?) in cross section, at least all the rhombuses will be leaning the same way. I should mention that my bench top will probably be in two pieces simply to make it easy to move out of our apartment when the time comes. So, I was thinking 1 piece from the quarter-sawn stuff, and the other from the rift-sawn.

[Peter Hawser]

That is super helpful Nicholas!